I felt a distinct feeling the first time I heard someone utter the phrase “product-led growth.” Well, actually, two feelings. One was confusion; the other was sympathy.
Read MorePerhaps the most compelling truth about good design, then, is that it is in the eye of the beholder. The range of expressions that good design can take makes available a universe of ways that we can experience it. There are countless ways one might divine and develop good design.
Read MoreI just had the opportunity to sit down for a conversation on the Breakthrough Builders podcast with Varun Parmar, the Chief Product Officer at Miro. And I’m glad I was sitting down, because he really blew me away with his smarts, his perspective, and his humility.
Read MoreThe going is getting tough. For a long time, there’s been a feeling that assets of all types are overvalued and that we’ve been due for a correction.
Read MoreMoving from the consulting world to the “client side” in 2020 entailed all kinds of emotional travails, most of which centered on taking leave of the teams at Prophet I’d worked with and grown to love. I’ve heard stories of people being given a week to decide whether they want to take a job; those stories make me laugh out loud (even if just with or at myself). I took no less than a month and a half to make a decision to join Qualtrics.
Read MoreAbout 16 months ago, I reflected on the disparities between the experiences of good entertainment content (inspiring/entertaining and story-based) and what passes for good business content (relevant/compelling, yet staid). The takeaway.
Read MoreWhen I was 15 years old, I was at the peak of my career - as an athlete. I’d just gotten drafted by an elite hockey team that was in a respected league near where I grew up. And even though I’d been in the role of Captain on just about every team I’d played on, this particular team already had a captain. He also happened to be the coach’s son.
Read MoreI’m not normally big on predictions. But the events of the past two years have spawned or accelerated so many fundamental shifts that I think it’s important to take stock as to which will be most salient to our experiences of work, life, play, and learning as we move into 2022 – and beyond.
Read MoreEarlier this month, it was announced that the iconic Staples Center will be renamed Crypto.com Arena as of December 25, 2021, in connection with a 20-year naming-rights deal struck between the rapidly-growing cryptocurrency platform and AEG, which owns and operates the arena. This represents far more than the typical handoff from one sponsor to another as companies’ marketing strategies change and investment priorities shift. It is a cultural moment that deserves to be highlighted and dog-eared in the textbook of economic history that the next generation of business leaders is writing.
Read MoreWhile mergers and acquisitions may have slowed in 2020, nearly $4 trillion in M&A activity had occurred as of mid-August in 2021. The federal funds rate is still close to zero, buoying an already-hot bull market and enticing investors worldwide to put more capital to work in US-based assets. Still, the top 25 US private equity shops are sitting on $510B in uninvested capital.
Read MoreYou know that feeling you get when two of your really good friends from different walks of life become good friends with each other?
Read MoreCivilizations rise and fall. When they rise, it’s because they inspire belief, create opportunity, and promulgate themselves based on some set of shared values. When they fall, it’s either because the orthodoxy on which they were based has fallen out of favor, because conquerors came and knocked it down, or because a new and improved way of thinking came along.
Read MoreIn this essay, I’ve identified three universal themes from the conversations with Alex, Scott, and Jeetu – new rules for how empathy can guide product design. And I’ve pulled excerpts from each conversation for a look at how these builders are specifically approaching their roles and responsibilities in the era of experience.
Read MoreWe all know a great integrated marketing campaign when we see one. Some icons of late have included Old Spice’s Smell Like a Man, Man, Southwest’s Transfarency, and Spotify’s Wrapped.
Read MoreI wanted to share the steps on my journey to becoming something of a...Podcast Person. My reflection is not meant to be a “how-to guide,” and it is not a list of resources per se. Instead, it is an attempt to share the story of how Breakthrough Builders came to be, so that others might take something from the experiences I’ve had.
Read MoreThe CMO is in fact a Chief Experience Officer - a leader who must not only build brand relevance and generate sales pipeline, but also build an organization based on deep customer empathy to design and deliver breakthrough product, brand, and customer experiences.
Read MoreIn 2001, I made the decision to move from Chicago to San Francisco. There wasn’t anything spectacular about it - I hadn’t gotten into a dream school, I wasn’t going to see about a girl, and I didn’t have a blockbuster job. If anything, the objective mundanity of the move was its defining characteristic.
Read MoreSeveral years ago when I was at Prophet, I worked with Qualtrics Chief Marketing Officer Kylan Lundeen and his team to divine and articulate the Qualtrics brand. Even though the company had been enjoying tremendous growth and had a ton of clarity around its values, there was a sense that it was the right time to take stock of what Qualtrics believed and why it existed.
Read MoreFor many of us in the US, the pandemic arrived in earnest in March of 2020. Only a few weeks later, despite being a society that had gotten itself used to screen time, we began to remark upon and complain about Zoom fatigue. It turns out that starting into software rectangles nested inside hardware rectangles is not the way to improve upon the hustle-and-bustle of the 5:30 commute.
Read MoreWhen I started at Qualtrics last Spring, my remit was to develop and articulate the value proposition of Experience Management for the high-tech industry, and to create thought leadership that would make our brand more relevant to customers.
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